The HabForum

I'm curious, why do the week-long programs get patches for the team awards but the adult programs never do? The adult groups get a small shuttle stack pin (the same one you can buy in the gift shop) for an award. Not even remotely as 'cool' as this:

I have a 'mission patch' award patch, but I got it from someone after the fact and not from SC. They rarely ever turn up on eBay, I suppose for pretty obvious reasons.
I also know for sure that they have made new logo awards patches, so why can't they use up the current logo stuff by awarding them to the adult program people, too?
It just seems wrong in a self-centered kind of way that I've designed two camp winning mission patch designs and I had to find my mission patch award patch second-hand...

I prefer the pins over the patches. How many "Space Camp" patches can you sew onto your flightsuit? The pins may not be the best solution, but they are a little bit better way to showcase your awards on your uniform, in my opinion. If my teams had been given patches for Best Mission, Best Mission Patch, and Spacebowl then I would have a total of 5 round Space Camp patches on my flightsuit that looked nearly identical until you saw them close-up. Perhaps Space Camp should explore different solutions for awards, either in a patch, pin or some other form.

Hotdog wrote:I prefer the pins over the patches. How many "Space Camp" patches can you sew onto your flightsuit? The pins may not be the best solution, but they are a little bit better way to showcase your awards on your uniform, in my opinion. If my teams had been given patches for Best Mission, Best Mission Patch, and Spacebowl then I would have a total of 5 round Space Camp patches on my flightsuit that looked nearly identical until you saw them close-up. Perhaps Space Camp should explore different solutions for awards, either in a patch, pin or some other form.

How about the option to choose either? I mean, they go down the line of people on the team handing the things out, they could tell you that you have the choice of a pin or a patch. That'd be especially good in the case of people who value one award over another when the team won more than one. For example, I was very proud of my teams winning best mission patch twice because I personally designed and drew said winning designs. Someone who's team won, say, best mission might not value that award nearly as much when they were in the ISS at the time, so a pin would be better for them.
Let 'em decide. Beats me why they couldn't do that.
The stack pins are, in my mind, a little cheesy mostly because you can buy the very same ones at the gift shop. It's a letdown for people who think they earned it just to find they could have just bought one instead if they'd wanted. I've seen that exact reaction twice from people in person.

p51 wrote:How about the option to choose either?

Seems to me like that would allow for a break in team unity!

So the real issue is the pins are available to anyone in the gift shop. So the solution might be to create a pin that is exclusive to the award being given. No choosing what style of award you get, you get a pin, a pin of some kind that says "Best Mission" or "Best Mission Patch" or whatever that cannot be purchased elsewhere. At one time, Spacebowl winners got a "Spacebowl Champions" t-shirt which was really cool. If we had to go with a patch solution for awards, then make the patches very small "merit badge" type additions for the flightsuit uniform and not large 4-inch re-hashes of the existing Space Camp logo. I think we can all agree there is some room for improvement in this area, be the solution pin or patch or otherwise.

They're not stack pins anymore. We've recently switched to Orion capsules.

I sew my patches onto my Girl Guide camp blanket... weird perhaps from a space fanatic perspective, and it 'ruins' some of my collectibles because I sewed them onto something, but I love my patch collection and want to share it with others (girls at camp, mostly). I can always take them off my blanket and sew them onto a flight suit if I ever want to change things up.

I prefer patches over pins, but neither are necessary. Nice, yes, but I know in my heart what I've accomplished and share in the joy of others' achievements as well.

Saint wrote:They're not stack pins anymore. We've recently switched to Orion capsules.

Any chance to see what these new pins look like?

Ask and ye shall receive.

Nice!
Thanks for posting that. I like how that looks.

Similar to the old shuttle pins, I've seen these as well.

How do we know it's an Orion capsule and not an Apollo capsule? Playing devil's advocate on the pin design here....

The hatch and window arrangement seem to indicate an Orion.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Orion ... ersion.jpg

I think a "rocker" patch would be a good idea..

nitelife222 wrote:I think a "rocker" patch would be a good idea..

Not a bad idea, but not really indicative of NASA culture. That's more of a military thing (would be great for aviation challenge, though).
A friend of mine at Houston told me a joke about NASA once:
Q: How many NASA people does it take screw in a light bulb?
A: Just one, but an entire team is needed to design the patch for it.

Yeah, you're right. Just thinking out loud. The three little stars on the Space Camp patch. What about different colored star pins that would be placed over them?

Dyna-Soar wrote:Similar to the old shuttle pins, I've seen these as well.

Those are special: not given by SC. They're from one of the SLS contractors. They gave them out as swag one week this summer.

nitelife222 wrote:I think a "rocker" patch would be a good idea..

Ideally, I'd like to see something similar to the Mach 25 or 100 Days patch. That seems NASAesqe. But we're the adults wanting to tie everything together. Most of the children trainees that win an award are thrilled, whether it's a pin or patch.

Now if only they'd listen to us adults! Ha!

Oh, as a side note, saw one of the new award patches today. Totally forgot to snap a picture.

Saint wrote:

Dyna-Soar wrote:Similar to the old shuttle pins, I've seen these as well.

Those are special: not given by SC. They're from one of the SLS contractors. They gave them out as swag one week this summer.

nitelife222 wrote:I think a "rocker" patch would be a good idea..

Ideally, I'd like to see something similar to the Mach 25 or 100 Days patch. That seems NASAesqe. But we're the adults wanting to tie everything together. Most of the children trainees that win an award are thrilled, whether it's a pin or patch.

Now if only they'd listen to us adults! Ha!

Oh, as a side note, saw one of the new award patches today. Totally forgot to snap a picture.

Thanks for the update, If you get a chance & see those patches again, love see to one. I know when all get excited, sometimes we all forgot. Again thanks for taking the time for your update.

This was posted on Space Camp social media today:

Funny, those are the ones I saw in those boxes in the HAB in September. I can't believe it took that long for them to start awarding them.
I assume that adult program groups still won't be getting them?
The funny thing is that the ward patches hardly ever turn up on eBay. The only one I have is a mission patch award one from way back, and that was given to me by someone on this forum (I think it was PK, I didn't write it down, darn it).
I'd love to get my mitts on one of the new mission patch award ones someday.

Most odd of all, I don't understand why there are still no new logo patches for sale in the gift shop, but that's a totally different subject...